49ers early call: Thumbs up for Martz making sense, thumbs way down for PR partisan hack Ari Fleischer

Here I am, all set and determined to give out a completely positive review of Mike Martz’s adroit and thoughtful command media performance yesterday (hey, a 49ers coach talking like a normal smart football person! how weird!)… and then…

The 49ers announced today that former Bush administration press secretary Ari Fleischer will be addressing the team in a few hours.

Yeah, that makes a ton of PR sense for a team that apparently has zero of it. Ari Fleischer? To lecture the helmet heads about what? How to lie mislead a nation about the lead up to a fractious war in the Middle East and then continue to bully anybody who might suggest otherwise and warn American citizens that they have to be careful of what they say in a free nation that he perhaps doesn’t think protects, you know, freedom of speech?

Who’s next up on the 49ers speakers bureau? Rush Limbaugh? Then Pastor Jeremiah Wright? (Well, you and I know it wouldn’t be Wright or anyone of that political/social stripe, not for Mike Nolan’s Hearty Fellows, but if it was Wright, it’d be just as stupid as Fleischer. JUST AS STUPID.)

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This is not strictly a political jab by me. Again, if Nolan and the NFL happened to lean the other way politically, and I’m guessing that he doesn’t and I know the NFL doesn’t, and plopped up a lying misleading conduit of lies hack partisan misstatements with blood on his hands who happened to be a knee-jerk lying misleading Democrat, then I’d say it just as loudly: STUPID.

I just think it’s ridiculous for the 49ers–or any sports franchise–to trot out any time-tested political attack dog, whether he or she be Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Socialist or whatever and think it’s a genius move.

It’s not. It’s total hackery. They’ve had Ronnie Lott speak to the team in the past. Good. Rocky Bleier. Fine. Ari Fleischer? Absurd.

To me, it’s a high definition example of Nolan’s mind: He might not be political in the Fleischer Way–but Nolan is a POLITICAL ANIMAL. That’s how he got this job. It’s how he kept it despite the universe of reasons for him to be fired.

He’s a campaigner. I often consider it blather, but Nolan has an electorate of three: Denise, John and Jed York. And he’s a monster politician with that demographic.

This sort of explains the whole Trent Dilfer fascination, too. Dilfer is even more of a politician than Nolan and more obvious, which is obvious to everyone in the world except Nolan and the Three Yorks.

Now I can definitely see Nolan and his minions getting off on Fleischer. The Nolanites, as I have documented thorougly and perhaps obsessively, love the Big Lie Misdirection. They absolutely are right there with the Yorks: They think if they just keep saying something will happen, it might just happen, even if there are no practical other reasons for it to happen.

I can see how a franchise like this would be in puppy love around a Master of Weird PR like Fleischer. There are Democratic guys who are masters of this dark art, also. They should confined to TV studios and oddball think tanks, not trotted around sports teams.

–This is also why I’m praising Martz for his media appearance yesterday–I wasn’t there, but I read all the fine accounts.

Martz sounds different answering questions than we’re used to a 49ers coach sounding. He really does. And do you know why? Because he actually thinks his answers through. He’s not alternately trying to suck-up or over-power the questioner with his pre-planned patter.

He’s not HOPING something is true about his offense or his thinking. He’s saying what he thinks. He’s working with what he has. He has a belief system–as opposed to, you know, the guys who are bringing in Ari Fleischer and who’s main belief system, like Fleischer’s, is for total individual survival depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Among other things, here’s what made a ton of sense from Martz yesterday:

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* Martz didn’t butter up the QBs. He said they were not yet up to speed on his offense. He said it was chaotic so far. He said he’s sure Alex Smith and Shaun Hill be fine.

And I’ll bet if Smith and Hill start veering way behind schedule, Martz will say so. I least I hope he will. That’s how real coaches do it. You present what’s expected, you note what is actually being done, and you evaluate it cleanly and logically from there.

That’s not Nolan’s way, I know. He just blathers on about how Great Everything Is and crosses his fingers silently hoping it’ll all turn out right. When it doesn’t, and it never does, Nolan moves on to the next thing and, even if it’s contrary to his Last Great Thing, he says the New Great Thing of course is the best thing ever.

If you’re picking a starting QB, Martz’s way happens to be better than Nolan’s imaginary way.

* Martz is going to be calling plays from the press box level. Not the field. I could go on and on about Jim Hostler’s sad refusal to admit that he should’ve been in the press box all last season and what it symbolized about his ridiculous and brief tenure.

Some coordinators are fine on the field. Some are better upstairs. If you’re a new coordinator, you GO UP STAIRS because then you can see the whole field and you don’t get caught up in the sideline raucousness.

You don’t worry about how “it looks” to your coaching brethren or that you think you’re a “hands-on” coach. You’re calling plays. Do it upstairs.

Martz has been on the field, he has been upstars. He’s going upstairs. How easy was that?

* Martz says he wants Frank Gore to run the ball. Fairly simple. Fairly obvious. I know Hostler wanted to do that, too, but there was no confidence that he could set up the scheme that would take advantage of Gore’s strengths.

I already know that the players believe that Martz can do that. He doesn’t have to do misdirection or listen to Fleischer tell him how to spin lie to the media or to the public.

I don’t know if Martz is going to make the 49ers a good offense again. I do know that he has an honest chance, which is more than I can say about the 49ers’ PR sensibilities.

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Last time I checked, a blog does not require the same journalistic standards as a newspaper story. TK could write about anything he wants on his blog. He can give his opinion on his blog. If you disagree then go ahead and do that. That is your right but to get worked up in a lather and chastise him for poor journalism for a blog entry is silly. I certainly do not agree with him all time and when I don’t do you know what I do? I go about my day. Get lives people.

To draw on the immortal Allen Iverson:

We talking about… a blog entry? A bog entry!

things are all right

All this vitriol over one political rant? Hard to believe the outrage is really about taking offense at an out of place political opinion. Perhaps you just don’t like the message?

Tim can write about whatever the hell he wants, just like you can. Get your own blog. #19 you crack me up.

boridge

Hey Tim – Love your work but I have to agree here – this political rant seems a bit odd coming from you. Could it be that the Niners chose Ari to come speak because he’s just an interesting guy who can help the whole team better understand the media world and how best to navigate it to their advantage? Perhaps the fact that we was chosen wasn’t so much Nolan be political but rather meant to just be informative?

niner4evr

TK – You just lost a reader. If I wanted to read about politics, I’d go to the Editorial section. Since the Merc blasts out your link to all the online subscribers, your blog gets as much play as any of the written pieces in the Merc. I think it hurts your credibility as a “Sports” writer to inject your political opinion into this subject as trivial as this, it just makes you sound like a bitter Repub/Bush/Cheney/Rush hater. Stop drinking the Haterade.

skidmark

Major professional sports are run by rich folks. Even the peons are rich. So Timmie rails at the Bush follies (evils) and we react like what he says matters. Nolan is inadequate. Bush and his boys are neocon evil characters. Maybe by raising the connections between sports and misused power he does us a favor.

Never back down, Tim.

Bill Walsh, where are you when we need you?

skidmark

Just drop it

Rubin

I hate politics that’s why I read the sports page. Looking from the outside in, I have to say that the people who hate the fliesher guy are just nasty. I would hope that you could make a point without name calling and the bitterness is plain ugly. Go watch CNN and yell at the TV. This is exactly why I hate politics. Makes people jerks.

Joker

conservative wackos are always up in arms when someone disses one of their own. they seem to be so sensitive over the most trivial of things. here’s a bottle neocons, go suck on it for a bit and come back when you’re calm and rational

Steve

Tim, a brilliant piece, and Nolan’s bumbling press conferences mid-season on last fall reminded me of nothing so much as our commander-in-chief in Washington. When you’re success depends on who you know, like Fleisher, Nolan, and Bush, ‘governance’ slides into a kind of gangsterism.

Someone should alert Colbert; this sounds like an item for his show.

JWN1

Political opinion has no business being in this sports blog. I can deal with your endless self aggrandizement but keep your political opinions to yourself.

woodsidedude

Why are so many people surprised that TK would write a politically motivated piece? Let’s face reality, Kawakami is just trying to get your attention in any way he can…and it worked. He is a watered down version of Skip Bayless who left that piss poor excuse for a newpaper, the San Jose Pamphlet, excuse me, San Jose Mercury News, (anyone see the Monday versions recently?) for a better job and TK is trying to emulate a “controversial” sports writer. Sorry, doesn’t work. Kawakami, along with many other employees of newspapers will be out on the street looking for a real job in less than 3 years. Nationally, newpaper readership is down 30+% and continuing to drop. See the article recently about the N Y Times profits and readership plunging? Any idea why? Maybe the public is tired of left-leaning bias and choosing to get “real news” from other sources. As Russ Hodges use to say: “Bye, Bye, Baby”. See in in the welfare line Timmie.

Ryan

It took a long time to weed through the BS to find the football content. Maybe stick to sports. Nobody on either side gives a crap about a sports colmnist’s politics.

ninerkev

Actually, the more I think about it, if I were a niner player and I had to sit through Ari Fleisher lecturing me on how to deal with the media I would probably shyte a brick. I think I would call ahead and miss that day for “personal family reasons.”

Daveofferson

I agree with you, Tim. Fleischer is a seriously weird choice to present to the team. The NFL is off its gold-plated rocker.